Contacts:
Suzie Canales, Citizens for Environmental Justice, 361-334-6764
Denny Larson, National Refinery Reform Campaign, 415-845-4705

(Corpus Christi, Texas) Citizens for Environmental Justice based in Corpus Christi, Texas, National Refinery Reform Campaign and Environmental Integrity Project filed objections on the Clean Air Act (CCA) Consent Decree with Valero Refinery asking that specific issues regarding the consent decree be addressed.

"Consent Decree agreements don't cover every issue at a refinery. This is why it's particularly important that what is covered be as effective as possible in order to protect the community", said Suzie Canales with Citizens for Environmental Justice. "We hope that the issues raised in our public comments be seriously addressed".

EPA has stated that an important goal of the National Petroleum Refinery Initiative is to address environmental justice concerns related to the nations refineries. The environmental justice groups raise specific issues with the Valero consent decree that if addressed could better protect human health. While the groups have questions and concerns about the Consent Decree that they believe should be answered, they are glad to see EPA moving forward and taking enforcement action against facilities like Valero that have violated the law for years.

"We are asking EPA to explain and fix blanket exemptions for start up, shut down and maintenance pollution," said Denny Larson of the National Refinery Reform Campaign. "The lack of a requirement for fenceline monitoring means that we will never know if the most harmful toxic air emissions, like benzene, will really decrease in the air people breathe downwind of Valero's refineries."

The groups raised the following important issues in their official comments to EPA:

The decree should be revised to include real time, continuous fence-line air monitoring. Violations and "accidents" will undoubtedly continue after entrance of the consent decree. More often than not, when these incidents occur company spokespersons and officials uniformly tell the community that the excess emissions were not a threat. The best way for community to track Valero's compliance with the CCA is through active monitoring of refinery emissions at the fence-line.

A major flaw in the settlement agreements is the exclusion of meaningful community input with regard to SEPs prior to selection of said SEPs. The community had to bear the burden from the violations addressed in the decree and should be consulted prior to the government and industry reaching an agreement regarding projects intended to benefit the local community. Although the SEPs listed in the Valero consent decree should bring some environmental benefit to the community, specifically the benzene reduction project in a city that ranks among the highest in the state for benzene levels, the fact remains that people have been heavily burdened for years by noncompliance at the hands of Valero and there has been no comprehensive study to evaluate the impact on human health from these violations. The decree should be revised to include a comprehensive and independent study that would look at the impact to human health from Valero's violations.

Several provisions of the decree appear to allow Valero to exceed emission limits during startup, shutdown, malfunction or upset. Such provisions are contrary to EPA policy and guidance and would allow Valero to continue to subject the surrounding community to pollution in excess of legal standards.

For more information about community concerns about EPA's efforts with the nation's oil refineries see: www/refineryreform.org.